Rhapsody - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II

*=Staff's pick	The Dark Secret Unholy Warcry* Never Forgotten Heroes Elgard’s Green Valleys The Magic Of The Wizard’s Dream Eriah’s Mystical Rhymes* The Last Angel’s Call Dragonland’s River Sacred Power Of Raging Winds* Guardiani Shadows Of Death Nightfall On The Grey Mountains

Genre	Epic Fantasy Metal	Fabio Lione	Vocals
Tracks	12	Luca Turilli	Guitar
Runningtime	49 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	SPV	Patrice Guers	Bass
Release	27 Sept. 2004	Alex Holzwarth	Drums
Country	Italy	Alex Staropoli	Keyboards
Similar artists	Domine, Dark Moor, Thy Majestie

The saga continues.....

Rhapsody are back with a full artillery of mighty choirs, bombastic arrangements, powerful riffs and sound landscapes, and with a story that takes us on an enchanted journey on the quest for a sword made of emerald, with guest appearances by unicorns, hobbits and various mythical beings. Not budging one inch from their destined path, they continue to deliver fast paced, majestic metal, with swirling riffs and solos, all backed up by very compact and flamboyant orchestral arrangements.

This time they have gone past and beyond all previous arrangements when it comes to magnitude, and have hired the services of the full Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra from the Czech Republic, which is a a 50 piece strong man and women choir, as well as appearances by more than a dozen international guest soloists. Consequently, it is mightier than it has ever been before, and during the first listening session, I found it to be too much, actually. Along the way, it has grown on me, and it melts into the music very well and it does not become more significant on this album then any other.

There is no real need to ramble on about the actual musical aspects, since it is professional and splendidly performed, as usual, in their characteristic style that you either dislike all together or just have learned to love. On the minus side for this album must however be said that you are starting to recognise certain elements a bit to much from earlier material. The way of building verses, bridges, the arrrangements etc. Also the individual instrumental work is travelling on the same tight road as before. Very good, yes, but this time it will not really grab a hold of me, and more than once I feel that I spot fragments that has been used before in earlier creations. It is however nicely masqued, so you can't really track down the source of it, but it takes away a bit of the enjoyment while listening.

Never Forgotten Heroes and The Last Angel’s Call are very good examples of that, since the verses and the refrains ring big bells of recognistion. The refrains in general on this album are a bit held back and none of them really bloom into something really good, as the ones we have been spoiled with on all previous albums. The tempo is as usual above midtempo, but with a slightly more focus of mighty arrangements comes as a natural result that it's held back a tiny bit in favour of a more mature and heavy sound, and not as fast as before.

Thumbs up also for the wise decision to fire the previous narrator in favour of Christopher Lee, who add a great depth to the story along the way with his authoritative voice. A thumb down is handed out for the fact that they in some way must have picked more then the justified amount of tunes from a part of Nightwish's Fantasmic when they composed Elgard’s Green Valleys. Almost a spitting image.

Of course a very good, and extremely solid album once again, but nevertheless it has to be considered somewhat of an average midalbum according to Rhapsody standards. This one is at no time giving me goose bumps like the others can at almost any given time. I patiently await for them to get their act together until next release, and expect them to run me over with a killer effort next time instead.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8,5	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tommy